Way too many words on the curious state of Oklahoma women's basketball
Baranczyk's 15th-ranked Sooners haven't played well since SEC play began. Here are four things that need solving to get them out of their own way

The South Carolina women have won two of the last three national championships, are ranked No. 2 and typically bulldoze opponents, so the fact Oklahoma fell in Columbia on Sunday is really no surprise.
But did the Sooners have to lose by 41 points?
Or be so shellshocked after falling behind 25 in the first half, they turned around and allowed 30 third-quarter Gamecock points?
On the bright side, we got to see coach Jennie Baranczyk use a timeout before the final minute and still it appeared to come too late, OU trailing 58-29 with 6:48 remaining in the third quarter, having already committed 12 turnovers, all but one in the first half. On the downside, her team played only worse afterward, getting outscored 21-11 the rest of the frame.
On her way off the court, speaking to longtime play-by-play man Brian Brinkley, Baranczyk said, “We didn’t come out necessarily the way we wanted,” a huge understatement, followed immediately with, “We were a little too amped,” which, though an understatement, the spirit of which was exactly right.
The first few possessions of the game, the Sooners proved they could play with the Gamecocks.
They weren’t being pushed around, they didn’t appear to be at an impossible athletic disadvantage. Their first four points came in transition, the way they want to play, first off a made Gamecock basket and next off a Skylar Vann steal, knotting the score.
Still, beyond easy layups, they couldn’t make a basket and they couldn’t make a basket because they were back-rimming everything, each shot seemingly a few inches long. When that state of affairs became a seven-possession span in which OU committed three turnovers, missed three shots and produced points only once while South Carolina hit a pair of 2s and a trio of 3s to lead 16-6, the game was essentially over.
The only Sooner to play with confidence the rest of the afternoon was post Raegan Beers, who finished with a game-high 23 points, a game-high eight rebounds and even a co-Sooner-high two made 3-pointers.
More than anything, OU’s eventual 101-60 defeat was an indictment of the five conference games the Sooners (15-4, 3-3 SEC) had already played, in none of which they excelled and in none of which they appeared to improve upon the previous performance.
Instead, they were busy standing still, which is no place to be staring down South Carolina.
Given that, while Sunday’s loss was no surprise, yet the 41-point margin appeared to be, it really wasn’t given what had come before.
On that note, here’s an annotated list of four things OU must solve if it’s to be the team it ought to be in time for March Madness.
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1. Turnovers.
The Sooners turned the ball over 22 times against South Carolina, the same number they turned it over four days earlier against Missouri.
They’re averaging 23.7 giveaways since conference play began and their overall turnover average of 19.4 ranks dead last in the 16-team SEC and 320th of 353 Division I programs.
After each conference game Baranczyk says they’re going to figure it out and not only haven’t they, nor have they taken any strides in the right direction.
A year ago, OU committed 16.1 turnovers per game and less, 14.5, against Big 12 foes.
This year, with virtually the same players handling the ball, the numbers are far worse and going further the wrong direction against SEC foes.
It makes no sense.
It just keeps happening.
2. Payton Verhulst
Here are Verhulst’s point totals since conference play began: 23, 16, 15, 7, 38, 3.
Here are Verhulst’s outings from 3-point land since conference play began: 1 of 11, 4 of 11, 0 of 5, 1 of 5, 6 of 9, 1 of 3.
When it’s going well for Verhulst, she’s plays like a first-team All-American. Her release, if you can believe it, is Caitlin Clark quick and there’s no stopping her.
In 13 non-conference games, Verhulst hit 40 percent (32 of 80) from 3-point land, but is hitting just 29.5 percent (13 of 44) in conference play.
On the bright side, she’s at least become a busier offensive player against SEC competition, averaging 17.5 points since league play began against 14.6 overall.
But the inconsistency must be solved: 38 against Missouri and just three against South Carolina, on only six shots?
She should lead the Sooners in attempts every game.
3. Nevaeh Tot and Skylar Vann
The mystery is why, when and where each of these fifth-year Sooner stalwarts lost their confidence. The only thing clear is they have.
Last season, against Big 12 opponents, Tot carried a 3.1-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, one of the best marks in the nation. Though she hit a fair-to-middling 32.4 percent of her 3-point attempts, she never seemed to miss an open one down the stretch of tight games.
She led the Sooners in daggers.
Now, against SEC competition, her assist-to-turnover ratio — 19 to 17 — is dang near 1 to 1, while her assist average has dipped from 5.2 to 3.2.
In the early moments of the fourth quarter Sunday, her team trailing by 40 points, the ball found Tot twice in position to take an open 3. Each time she turned it down.
She finished the game without scoring, with three turnovers against a single assist, and played just 18 minutes while Reyna Scott came off the bench to play 21.
Scott has improved mightily but is still not near the level of Tot last season.
OU badly needs its dependable point guard to be dependable again.
Then there’s Vann, twice sixth player of the year in the Big 12 and last season the conference’s co-player of the year.
Yet now, in the face of Verhulst’s emergence and Beers’ arrival, she appears lost.
Her scoring has dropped from 15.1 per game last season to 9.6 this one and a paltry 6.5 against SEC opponents.
As high as a 34.4 percent 3-point shooter her sophomore season, she’s hitting 27.3 percent this one and 25 percent against conference foes. After grabbing 7 rebounds per game last season, she’s at 4.7 in this one.
Her numbers may have been bound to trail Beers’ and Verhulst’s, but they were never supposed to drop off a cliff.
The two struggling Sooners are also a big part of OU’s outside shooting woes. Before conference play began, OU was shooting 34.4 percent from 3-point range. Since, the number’s been 28.8 percent with only two players, Sahara Williams (6 of 17) and Beers (4 of 6), cracking the 30 percent barrier.
4. What’s Baranczyk thinking?
We’ve gone on and on in this space about the Sooner coach’s unwillingness to step in and stop the action when her squad’s struggling on the floor.
Beyond that, there appears to be tension between the way OU played without a big, physical presence in the post and the way it’s playing since Beers’ arrival, though there’s no reason at all why their should be.
Also, while Vann appears lost and without confidence playing on the same court as Beers, Verhulst, OU’s leading scorer in conference play, still doesn’t play as though she’s been empowered or feels responsible to lead.
Sometimes she plays like it. Sometimes she doesn’t.
Two players who appear unbothered and unconfused by their roles are Williams and Lexi Keys. One of them, Keys, started every game last season and has started none this one.
If they can do it, why can’t everybody else?
Once, under Baranczyk, on more limited Sooner squads than this one, the chemistry came easy. Now, with a higher ceiling, it’s not.
She’s got work to do.